Media reform laws address abuses of long-fought for freedoms

By Matt da Silva (@mattdasilva) March 15th, 2013 Source:Happy Antipodean In a useful run-down on his blog, journalism law academic Mark Pearson outlines some objections to the government’s proposed media reform legislation. It is a little brief and although it starts out promisingly, political concerns quickly rush to the fore. Here’s his first objection, near the top: […]

Media despots, tsars and henchmen bury media reform

By Noely Nate March 13, 2013 OMG! Australian Media Reform means the sky falling in, freedom of the press under attack, the Government trying to gag the media.  Growing anger at ‘Soviet’ media reforms, Gillard’s Henchman Attacks Our Freedom (great Mao photoshop on that one). My personal favourite is Press tsar to check standards from The Australian, our supposedly pre-eminent National paper.  Hell, even Blind Freddy […]

Democracy, ethics, tolerance and public civility

By Tony Fitzgerald December 08, 2012 Margo: Tony has kindly given me permission to publish a piece he wrote for the Oz late last year. There are about 800 politicians in Australia’s parliaments. According to their assessments of each other, that quite small group includes role models for lying, cheating, deceiving, ‘rorting’, bullying, rumour-mongering, back-stabbing, slander, ‘leaking’, […]

To perform our democratic function we need and are entitled to the truth: Tony Fitzgerald

By Margo Kingston March 6, 2013 News of the accidental publication of secret documents from the Fitzgerald Royal Commission got me thinking about my hero in the context of recent examples of our corrupt and dishonest politics. Tony Fitzgerald exposed the corruption at the heart of the Bjelke-Petersen government and laid out a blueprint for ethical government. Southerners were smug, but […]